by Stephen Waite

DELPH Whitcombe has been running the Gore Court Arms for 18 years. She’s also a smoker.

So if anyone was going to be unhappy about pubs going no smoking, it would have been her.

But with the passing of time, views have mellowed and asked if she would like to see the ban reversed, she said: “Would we go back if we had the opportunity? I don’t know. I’m a smoker and I quite like it.

“The environment is much cleaner and your clothes don’t smell. We’ve only had to decorate once in the last four years.

“We brightened it up in 2008 and haven’t had to touch it since.”

That’s not to say the ban hasn’t had an effect on business. “It’s definitely declined,” said Delph.

“Especially when it’s freezing cold, raining or snowing, where they would come to the pub and sit around a fire and have a cigarette, they think ‘I’ll stay at home’ now.

“But I’m quite happy in the summer when you can go outside, it can feel a bit like being on holiday.”

Poor weather aside, pubs are also battling the recession, with punters counting their pennies, and competition from cheap alcohol prices in supermarkets.

Forest, a lobbying group representing smokers, claims 5,000 pubs have closed since 2007.

An e-petition demanding a review of the ban to give licensees the option of having smoking rooms has been submitted.

But just under 5,500 people have signed up and 100,000 signatures are needed by August to force a government debate.

Steve Hedley, landlord of The Billet, in London Road, Sittingbourne, and a committed smoker, has been a licensee for 30 years.

“At the time I was totally against it but now I am totally in favour. It (the ban) felt like a drastic move. It’s affected most businesses, especially sport-orientated pubs where you had blue collar workers. But where food is involved, I wouldn’t want cigarette smoke around.”

Steve said he would support indoor smoking rooms, if they were properly ventilated. “People would like somewhere to go and not freeze to death,” he added.

Vicky Lewis, who runs the Ypres Tavern in West Street, Sittingbourne, agreed. “I think it’s better. We always had to walk around and clean all the ashtrays out and we would go home and we would absolutely stink.

“I think people that smoke still go out, regardless.”